DEV SINGH Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present two appellants stood a trial in S.T. No. 383 of 1997 before the IIIrd Additional Sessions Judge, Bijnor, for offences under Sections 302/34, I. P. C. and 201, I. P. C. for having committed the murders of Surindra Kaur and Paramjit Kaur alias Koti and for throwing the deadbodies into a pond.

(2.) The trial Judge found them guilty for the aforesaid offences and convicted them for the same by his order dated 15-5-98. For their conviction under Sections 302/34 of the Indian Penal Code the two appellants were ordered to be hanged by neck till death. For the other conviction they were sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for seven years. The Sessions Judge after recording the punishment made a reference to this Court which was registered as Reference No. 7 of 1998. The two accused persons also preferred an appeal which was registered as Capital Case Appeal No. 894 of 1998 and the appeal and the reference were heard together.

(3.) The learned counsel for the appellants submitted that the alleged two eye-witnesses examined at the trial did not inspire confidence and their conduct made them unreliable. It was further submitted that the trial Judge had committed a grave error of law in his latent reliance on the confession of the accused persons allegedly made before police. It was also contended that the witnesses were examined under Section 164, Cr.P.C. at the stage of the investigation and learned counsel for the appellants proposed to conclude that this very fact was sufficient to suggest that the prosecution itself had doubts about their statements and the prosecution wanted to pin them down with statements in Court. The learned State Counsel submitted that implicit reliance was rightly placed on the two eye-witnesses read with the circumstances of the case including the circumstance that the son of one of the accused had scribed the F.I.R.